A step by step sketch of the Long Border at Great Dixter

We visited the wonderful garden at Great Dixter yesterday.  The garden was full of tourists from Europe who'd come specially to see the garden - which was looking very full of flowers and plants and absolutely splendid as usual.

My sketch of the Long Border at Great Dixter
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Below are step by step photos of how I got to the above (unfinished) sketch which I did while sat on the seat at the end of the Long Border.  I thought people who've not seen one of my step by steps before might find it interesting.

Media used are as follows.  Links go to either my website Pastels and Pencils - Art Materials or to the Sketching Toolkit module within my website Travel Sketching: How to sketch the places you see

• Large A4 sized Moleskine Sketchbook
• a Pentel e-sharp mechanical pencil
• a Pilot G-TEC-C4 gel ink rollerball using brown (sepia) ink
• a variety of coloured pencils

Here's the sketches one by one

Sketch #1:  Mapping a pencil outline and guides

This was a complicated sketch, both in terms of subject matter, zones, and perspective.  So, as I knew I was going to be drawing with pen and ink I decided to give myself a little bit of help.

I first took a photo.  That's something I very often do to work out what to make the four lines around the edge of the sketch - what to leave in and what to leave out.

I looked at my photo and used it to map out some very rough guidelines quickly in pencil.  This took me no more than two minutes.  I was mentally looking for halves, quarters and thirds relative to the picture format as I found my guidelines.

I added in a bit of shading afterwards just to remind myself where the darks are - it's help to locate places within the picture when doing a complicated sketch.

Pencil guidelines and a bit of pencil hatching re darker tones
mechanical pencil in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

2. Starting to draw with pen and sepia ink

This photo was taken after I started to draw in the lines I wanted for my sketch. I highlight shapes - both large and small, squiggley edges of plants, edges of tonal areas, important lines and edges which guide in and around the sketch eg edge of the path, roofline.

I also started to add in hints of the colours as I find this helps me with the drawing.  Saves time trying to work out which bit is which!

Starting the pen and ink drawing for the sketch
pen and sepia ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

3. Starting to add Coloured Pencil

Initial layers of coloured pencil are focused on the things I need to resolve the distances involved.  I find if I get the foreground, middle ground and background issues resolved I then find it easier to find my way around a complicated sketch.

At this stage there are lots of "notes to me" in this sketch - of things that need to further developed and finished later.  For example, I'm using ink to hatch in the beginnings of what will become darker areas.  Plus I'm locating the colours of specific flowers in the border.

Starting to add coloured pencils
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

4. More Coloured Pencil

One of the main things I do when using coloured pencils is to mix colours and tones on the page.  I don't want the 2D flatness that you get when you use just one colour for an area of colour.

For example, there's about six colours in that roof and about four shades of green in the strip of grass alongside the path.

I'm also constantly tying in colours laid down in one place to colours used elswhere - which adds unity to the development of the sketch

Starting to think about darker tones and variation within 'one colour' areas
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

5. Where I've got to

The sketch as it stands at the moment (see top) is where I got before "he who must not be bored while I sketch" decided it was time for tea!

It needs finishing.  Everything is a little bit too light.  The light areas need more darks so they'll start to pop. The main thing is that I needed more greens to complete the trees and the hedges.

I'll post the proper sketch when I've finished it.

UPDATE:  Here's the movie of a slideshow of the sketches!

This is how it was made - Sketching slideshow - iPhoto to slideshow to Quicktime Movie

More sketches of Great Dixter

Below there are more sketches of Great Dixter - ordered chronologically.  There's even another sketch of the Long Border!

• The Bird Topiary at Great Dixter 15 Nov 2011
• The Long Border at Great Dixter 28 Jul 2008
• Great Dixter in the Spring 16 Apr 2008
• Great Dixter 29 Aug 2007

More about Great Dixter and gardens

These are some more links which you may find interesting if you like gardens

• Great Dixter - house and gardens, High Park Close, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 6PH
• Map of Great Dixter
• Great Dixter - Garden Tour
• Great Dixter - The Long Border
• Twitter account for the Garden's Business Manager
• Great Dixter Facebook Page
• A Year at Dixter - the blog of Maggie Tran is the 2012-13 Christopher Lloyd Scholar at Great Dixter
• Great Dixter - a great garden - information for those wanting to pay an actual or virtual visit
• Gardens in Art - Resources for Artists
• my blog post on Making A Mark about Gardens in Art: Arts and Crafts Gardens #1
• Pastels and Pencils - some of my sketches of gardens and parks in England

10 reasons to sketch with coloured pencils

Today, the Derwent Pencil Company has published my article - 10 reasons to Sketch with Coloured Pencils by Katherine Tyrrell - on their lovepencils blog.

Published on the lovepencils blog 1st March 2011

I've now been sketching with coloured pencils for over twenty years - following a tip from a professional artist about how easy and effective they were to use for sketching.  I'm so convinced of their value I have no doubt I'll be sketching with them for the next twenty years too!

However I've always been really surprised that coloured pencils don't get mentioned more in art journals as a valuable sketching medium - for all the reasons I outline in the article.

As you can imagine I was absolutely delighted to be able to give coloured pencils a higher profile by focusing on value as an article for the blog!  Here are the 10 reasons - and if you want to know more you'll have to read the article!

1. Not a lot to carry!
2. As many colours as you want
3. Go where other artists cannot go
4. Scope for mixed media
5. Get a true record of colours and tones 
6. Work small - and large
7. Impervious to rain
8. If you make a mistake....
9. Coloured pencils don’t run 
10. No waiting for the paint to dry! 

I'll be putting a FREE downloadable copy of the article - in a slightly different format - on the Making A Mark Guides page of my website blog later this week. 

If you've not tried coloured pencils as a sketching medium why not give them a go!

The Love Pencils blog

The lovepencils blog was started in November last year by Derwent - the Cumberland Pencil Company. 
It was great to see a major pencils manufacturer grasp the value that a blog can have for those who are fans of their products and the company itself. 

The Derwent ladies make a point (joke!) of posting on a regular basis.  You can see the archive of past posts here.  Plus the blog has now passed the magical three month mark - which means it's "a stayer"! (It's a fact that something like 90% of blogs die before they are three months old).

I love all the people at Derwent - they're always really helpful and I'm certainly more than happy to contribute an article to this great new blog.  :)

If you're a fan of working with pencils I do recommend subscribing to the LovePencils blog.  Apart from keeping you up to date with new products and product changes, the blog also has articles by artists working with pencils in different ways.

A day in the Musee d'Orsay - tips on sketching

Sacré Cœur and the butte Montmartre from the roof terrace of the Musée d'Orsay
(aka the sketch I wish I'd done while I was there! - see below)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On our second day in Paris I visited the Musée d'Orsay and the Sennelier shop at Quai Voltaire (on the Left Bank, opposite the Louvre). Click this link to see a Google map of the places I visited - also shown below.

You can read blog posts on my two other blogs about:

• Making A Mark - The Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark - Video: Vincent van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark - Video: Claude Monet at the Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark Reviews - Art shop review: Magasin Sennelier, Paris

As you will see from the above posts you can take photographs and video the work in the Musée d'Orsay - within limits (see The Musée d'Orsay). You can see:

• Flickr set: Musée d'Orsay
• YouTube: my videos of paintings in the Musée d'Orsay

Feel free to leave a comment!

Sketching in the Musée d'Orsay

You can also copy works in the museum as follows. The museum makes a distinction between freehand drawing (including sketching) and people who want to set up an easel and copy paintings (by sight-size methods presumably).

An artist copying a painting in the Musée d'Orsay
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Freehand drawing
Freehand pencil sketches, not exceeding 30 x 60 cm, are allowed in the museum. However, for groups, previous authorisation must be requested when the booking is made.

Copyists
Copying museum works of art, by professional or amateur copyists, or by art school students, requires an individual authorisation. This is issued to one named person, and for a single work. The request must be submitted at least one month before the required date of entry to the museum. The permission is valid for three months, and may not be extended.
Copying

The main issues for those wanting to sketch are as follows:

• you can only to enter the museum with a handbag. So my sister's very large shoulder bag got in but my sketching backpack had to go in the cloakroom. I'd pared it right down so it wasn't in any way bulky as I've had this problem before but they were still adamant that all backpacks had to go in the cloakroom. (If I'd had a handbag inside the backpack I would have been able to take a basic kit in).
  
• the museum can be incredibly busy in certain areas - which means a lot of potential 'visual interference' while sketching. Plus you need to get yourself set up somewhere where you aren't in the way of other people as otherwise you'll be jostled on a fairly frequent basis as people tend to look at the pictures rather than where they are going!
  
• there aren't a lot of places to sit down. Fine if you can stand - but people like me who have a limit on standing still will have a problem. I also didn't see any sketching stools in use, nor did I see any store of them. You also won't be able to take in your own. (Has anybody ever used a museum sketching stool? If so, where did you get one)

I have to confess! This sketch the top of this post is a total cheat by me! It's the sketch I would have done from the roof terrace of the Musée d'Orsay - if I'd just had my backpack with me! Instead it was done back in London from a photo I took from the terrace.

The terrace is reached a door at the side of the cafe at the top of the building. The door to the terrace seems to be locked after summer is over. I've visited on a fine day at the end of October and was unable to get out on the terrace. However it was a fine warm day at the end of September when I visited. The door was unlocked while I sat eating lunch in the cafe and hordes of people immediately poured out and on to the terrace!

A visit to the Sennelier shop

Art shop review: Magasin Sennelier, Paris provides my perspective on the Sennelier shop I visited after leavingthe museum. I've also got a Flickr set of photos taken in the Sennelier shop.

Links:

• Musée d'Orsay 62, rue de Lille, 75343 Paris
  
• Musée d'Orsay - details for visitors
• Sennelier - 3 quai Voltaire 75007 Paris

Sissinghurst - and tips for time limited sketches

This is about sketching a view of the Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst and shows you my 'before' and 'after' versions of the same sketch. It also provides some tips for sketching within a time limit.

an early August evening in the Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst
11.5" x 17", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney black hardback sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This particular sketch was done right at the end of a trip to Sissinghurst in August. "He who must not be bored while I sketch" read his book sat in the chair outside the cottage while I sat on the doorstep. I also tried out my latest addition to my sketching toolkit which I'd bought earlier at the shop. This is a foam kneeling pad for gardeners. It fits neatly inside my backpack and makes a perfect lightweight pad for use when wanting to sit on the ground to sketch.

The sketch at the top is how it ended up - it's a sketch of an early August evening which means lots of lovely shadows and a warm quality to the light. I love sketching in the early evening and do it a lot as places often look much better than in the middle of the day.

However in this instance it was the end of the day and consequently I was very limited by how much time was left before the garden closed at 6.30pm - and below is how far I got while still in the garden. Below I'll tell you what I do if time for sketching is limited - and what I did to help me finish this sketch back at home.

work in progress - an early August evening in the Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst
11.5" x 17", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney black hardback sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Tips for time limited sketches - and how to complete them

I start a lot of sketches - but don't always finish them. Some are rubbish, don't deserve to be finished and never see the light of day again!

However other sketches are only starts because I'm working within a time limit and consequently cannot finish them properly. I can finish promising sketches back at home if I make sure I do a few things - which I'm sharing with you below.

If you have limited time to sketch here's an overview of some tips:

• PRACTICE doing short sketches - if you do a lot of sketches where you only allow yourself (say) 10-15 minutes then you soon get an idea of how much you can get done in that time period. Plus if you practice you speed up a lot as you begin to understand the possible shortcuts. (You can read more about this in my sketching class exercise Sketching for Real - so you want to learn how to sketch...... )
  
• the four most important lines: deciding just how much to draw is very important. You can carry a viewfinder - or use the viewfinder on your camera to work out what works for you. Some people just extract small slivers of a view if working quickly. I'm more likely to 'go large' as this means I have to simplify more. There's no right answer except what works best for you. It's worth experimenting to find out how much you can get down in just 10-15 minutes. (see also Making a Mark: Composition - the four most important lines)
  
• contour drawing - shapes and lines: focus on drawing in the big shapes and getting the junctions between important lines/shapes right. Forget about the details - there are more important things to do! I tend to look for the 'big' verticals and horizontals and any important diagonals eg any lines which lead the eye into the picture.
  
• sample what the photo can't give you: if you're also taking a photograph, you can use that to review your drawing of lines and shapes but it'll be useless for values (it will have a higher degree of contrast) and colours (cameras often distort natural hues - partly because of the values issue)
  
• focus on the value pattern: I always try to focus on getting the overall value pattern down. What I aim for is an expanded 'thumbnail sketch' which indicates why I was attracted to this view. You don't even have to draw all of it so long as you've got a sense of the contrast. In this example, you can see where I completed the value on the background Irish yew on the right and did a patch of the foreground Yew on the left. I also made sure I drew in and captured the light acid yellow green colour of the sunlight hitting the rim of the yew. (see also Making a Mark: Composition - why tonal values and contrast are important)
• sample the colours: if you sketch a lot there comes a point when you don't need to record colours anymore for some of your subject matter - if you've drawn it many times before from life you know what the colour is! A good reason for recording it is if it was different. In this instance the sky was a normal summer blue sky - hence no blue got recorded in the sketch! However I wanted to try and get a sample of the rim lighting on the yew and the yellows and reds of the flowers. I always do the best I can with whatever coloured pencils I have available and try optical mixes of different pencils I don't have the right colour pencil. ()
  
• get the rest of the colours down ASAP: If you do a lot of sketching and train your brain to observe, name and record colour then it's possible to do memory sketches - so long as you get the colour down fast. I find I've got to be very careful about this if I'm doing a day's sketching as all the colours in the different images can get mixed up in my memory. I find that my best bet for colour sketching from memory is always the last sketch of the day - as this was.

While I printed off a photo to check my proportions and shapes, I used my colour memory to complete this sketch and capture the early evening light. I think it worked quite well for the most part. There are bits I'd like to improve on and I may well have a go at working this one up info a more formal drawing.

Below you can find some links which provide helpful information if you want to draw or paint gardens and/or visit Sissinghurst. Plus links to previous sketches at Sissinghurst.

Do you have any tips for:

• sketching within a time limit?
• sketching from colour memory?
  

Links:

• For more of my tips about sketching see How to Sketch
• Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden - my information site about the garden at Sissinghurst.
• Gardens in Art - Resources for artists - my resources site for artists who like to draw and paint gardens
• Travels with a Sketchbook - sketching at Sissinghurst
• Pastels and Pencils - travels with a sketchbook in England

Sketching Tate Modern people

There's no great secret to how to learn to sketch people. You have to practice. You can of course go to life drawing classes and I would certainly advocate that as a very good idea for those who want to master the art of drawing people from life. However you still need to practice.

So if you want to practice you need to find somewhere where there are lots of people.

Tate Modern People
11.5" x 8.5", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the best places for practising the weird and wonderful effects of foreshortening is the grass lawn in front of the Tate Modern on a sunny day. You can always guarantee there will be lots of people sitting or spawling on the grass, on their own, or with a partner or in a group. Accompanies by various bags and/or small children or both.

Here's what you do:

• Sit yourself down on the rather nice big black benches on the Thames side of the grass.
  
• Face Tate Modern
• Start drawing.
• Start with one person and then build from there.
  
• Your sketch doesn't need to be exactly what you see in front of you - you can move people around
• However do pay attention to their relative distance from you as that dictates relative size.
• Fill the gaps - but also leave space between people - much as they do in real life.
• You don't have to fit everybody inside the four lines of the picture plane - you can crop people right down the middle! It is allowed! :)
  

You can repeat this exercise anywhere where you can find people in the sun.

Where's your favourite spot for sketching people?

Note: This was the sketch I drew on my home from the Drawing London group outing to the Royal Festival Hall (see A view of Charing Cross Station and Embankment Gardens). On my walk home along the South Bank I stopped to draw this scene in pen and ink. I spent about 20 minutes on it and added the green to the grass when I got home.

10 "Dos and Don'ts" for how to draw people while eating

Images of sketching people in interiors in London
- see Interior Landscapes - Drawings by Katherine Tyrrell
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I frequently draw people in public places while eating in public places as restaurants, cafes and gallery tea rooms. In fact I've drawn in cafes and restaurants all over the world - in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Lots of people tell me they'd never ever be able to do this. What follows are my dos and don'ts for being able to sketch people and interiors while eating - without it causing a problem for you.

Do let me know if you try my tips and they work for you.

DO...........

• DO tell the restaurant that you want to sketch when making a booking. This is the time for them to tell you you can or can't. If they don't say you can't then they can hardly object after you've placed your order! I mainly do this so I can make sure they know I'm on my own, won't be rushing and so they won't put me in the traditional 'bad table' for people on their own! I sometimes also tell them that their restaurant will feature on my sketchbook blog! That usually gets a positive reaction
  
• DO tell them you want a good view as you intend to draw the restaurant. Be prepared to turn down the first table they offer you and indicate one which is better. I've always been offered better tables. I recommend back to a wall and in a corner. You then get an angled view. The bottom line is making sure you've got something to look at!
  
• DO find out which restaurants continue to serve all afternoon. This connects with what time to turn up (see DON'T turn up when it's crowded below) For example, the National Cafe and the National Dining Rooms at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square are open all afternoon.
  
• DO tell staff that there's no need to rush with the food and an interval between courses is OK. Otherwise you'll NEVER get any sketching done! Do remember to eat though! I always try and order something which still taste good even if goes cold. Of course sketching what you've ordered is also allowed!
  
• DO leave a nice tip if you want to go back and do the same thing again. Being nice to the staff is ALWAYS a smart move! You'll find lots of the waiting staff will want to try and see what you've done. then they'll tell their friends and before you know it they'll all be coming over to admire your sketches! Remember people who can't draw at all are often envious ("I wish I could draw") and/or in total awe of anybody who can!
  

Images of sketching people in interiors in London
- see Interior Landscapes - Drawings by Katherine Tyrrell
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

DON'T.....

• DON'T be mean. You are probably going to take more time than the traditional customer so make sure you place an order which is commensurate with the time you think you;re going to spend occupying the table.
  
• DON'T turn up when it's crowded or at really busy times expecting to be fitted in. I only sketch over dinner in the evening when travelling on my own. Most of the time I sketch at lunchtime or in the afternoon. I find the best times for being fitted in as a single sketcher is if I get there very early when I get the best choice of tables I'm likely to get) or turn up after the main lunchtime rush when they're always pleased to see another customer.
  
• DON'T be too obvious about drawing the people in the restaurant. For example, I don't recommend sketching the people right next to you! You don't have their permission to draw them. However people often don't mind at all. If you get approached, don't assume they'll be annoyed. I've had people come across more than once to see how the drawing of them turned out. They're ever so impressed if you explain that you're an artist!
  
• DON'T draw faces. If people can't be identified they can neither object nor can they be upset if your drawing of them isn't flattering. Which is why the people in my sketches lack features. I draw their bodies and posture rather than their faces. You can do a lot with a good back!
  
• DON'T linger too long if they want to close up before the next service. If I know the place shuts between lunch and dinner then I always turn up very early.

You can find my blog posts about sketching while eating in Interior Landscapes - with food

You can see my sketches of people in interiors in two places on my website:

• the Interior Landscapes Gallery
• the Travels with a Sketchbook gallery - particularly trips overseas

Do you have any suggestions for how best to draw people and interiors while eating.

A Prague interior - and making notes while sketching

Baroque Angels, Pulpit - St Nicholas Chuch, Prague (1993)
coloured pencils in A5 Daler Rowney black sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've got an awful lot of sketches from many, many years of sketching. I've decided to start posting these with a little bit of an explanation about where they are and why they are significant - if they are!

I first started sketching with coloured pencils in Prague (Praha) in the Czech republic at the end of September 1993. It's a city with a fascinating history and it's quite remarkable how much of the old city is still intact - it really is like walking back 600-700 years in time.

Prague is a great city for artists and sketchers to visit as it has lots of great subjects to sketch and paint - all of which are central and within relatively easy walking distance - so long as you don't mind hills. However it can get very cold at that time of year. Sketching outside can be finger numbing!

This sketch is one I did of the marble pulpit in St Nicholas Church is in the Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti)) in Prague (not to be confused with St Nicholas Cathedral!). What I notice most about this sketch is that my tendency to have certicals leaning to the right have been around for a very long time! I now tend to get one straight line down measured by eye from the edge of the page to avoid this happening.

When you're with a group, as I was, you sometimes can't linger as long as you'd like to. In these sort of circumstances I tend to sketch on the right hand page and write notes on the left hand page - which you can see on the right.

I made notes about:

• what I was looking at - a marble and gilt pulpit in St Nicholas Church
• the main colours - very pale salmon, very pale green grey and 'old' gilt
• plus quirky features as an aid to understanding later ie "painted ceiling - arches are illusions where pale")
• at the bottom of the page there is an arrow to indicate that the brown structure is a wooden confessional.
  

Now as it happens I don't have photos of this interior - but if I did the sketch, the notes and the photos would together provide me with the material needed to develop it further if that's what I wanted to do.

How do you make notes?

Lunch at Carluccios at St Pancras International

Lunch at Carluccios, St Pancras International
8" x 11.5", pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I always enjoy sketching interiors of restaurants and this was the one I did over lunch with the RWS Friends Sketching Group on our visit to St Pancras last month. Of course people were coming and going the whole time and the only thing that stood still was the structure of the room!

You can see more sketches of interiors drawn 'on the spot' on my website here - Interior Landscapes - drawings by Katherine Tyrrell

You can also read my 10 Tips for How to Sketch People

The NEAC Discussion Panel 2008

NEAC Discussion Panel - Can you teach art or drawing?

(L to R) Alex Fowler, Francis Bowyer, Charles Williams and William Packer
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Last week, the New English Art Club arranged a Discussion Panel at its Annual Exhibition in the Mall Galleries - on the topic of "Can you teach drawing or painting?"

I'd drawn the panel at the discussion at last year's exhibition and wanted to do the same again so made sure I got there in good time and had a good view. Nobody on the Panel sat still of course so the sketch was completed in snatched moments as people settled for short periods - and I was darting back and forth between people all the time I sketched.

I find that the most difficult thing when sketching people like this is trying to guess which is the 'comfy' pose - the one an individual will always return to whenever they move.

I should have posted about the discussion last week as, although interesting, I can't now remember some of the points made in the debate. I do remember there was a long discussion about the various models of teaching drawing and painting which have been used over time - in particular comparing how people were taught themselves in the past and how they have to teach now - within whatever context.

Having qualified as a teacher myself in the dim and distant past, I do remember thinking I was less interested in how drawing and painting can be taught and more interested in how people learn to draw and paint in an effective manner (ie going beyond achieving a likeness).

In my view, in order for teaching to be effective the approach used does need to be based in an understanding of how people learn at different stages of their development as an artist. Sometimes you need to learn how to do and sometimes you need to be left to get on with trying to find what you can do with what you've learned. It did strike me me that maybe some of the approaches employed over time haven't always factored in how learning works - and that some approaches will have too structured and constrained for some and too vague and loose for others. I guess the question is a good one - even if it's not always easy to answer!

Note: NEAC has a Drawing School called, unsurprisingly, the New English School of Drawing. The information on the website is somewhat out of date but does provide a contact email for latest courses.

Links

• New English Art Club
  
• New English Art Club - Annual Open Exhibition 2008
• Sketching and quotations from the NEAC Exhibition

Product review: The Derwent Safari Journal

Derwent recently sent me a Safari Journal which I took out last week for a trial run. It's probably best if I start by saying something about what I look for in a sketchbook - as I'm a bit picky!

Medium/Mini Derwent Safari Journal
beige soft touch cover

I like my sketchbooks to:

• lie flat easily as I often work across a double page spread. Which basically rules out wire bound sketchbooks and any where some or all the pages fall out as soon as you crack the spine and force the sketchbook to lie flat. What seems to work best are the stitched sketchbooks.
• be big enough and small enough. Size is a very personal issue - how big does it need to be? It all depends on the size you like working - and how you carry your sketching tool kit. If you're a "slip it in the pocket with pen or pencil" type then you probably like your sketchbooks to be on the small size. If it has to fit into your everyday handbag/holdall then obviously you can go larger. Personally speaking I'm a "kitchen sink merchant" who collects rucksacks like other people collect handbags and salivates over clothes with zipped pockets for secreting all sorts of useful things like battery powered erasers while out on sketching expeditions! So - on the whole - I tend towards being happier with a larger sketchbook. However the ideal sketchbook is the size which can go anywhere without me having to think too hard about how to carry it - and smaller than ideal seems to leave home more often.
  
• have paper which works well with my media. It might seem an obvious thing to say but in discussions with people I often find people buy sketchbooks because they like the look of them. Personally speaking I can't buy them unless I've got the cellophane off and can feel the paper. Yes, I'm that funny person over in the corner in the art shop surreptitiously running my finger tips very lightly over the paper to feel how it's been made and pressed. The reality is some paper just sets my teeth on edge and I can't work on it at all. I'm looking for a plate feel finish on a paper which can absorb and deliver saturated colour. It has to work with pen and ink and a dancing line - as well as with graphite and coloured pencils, burnishing and erasing with a battery powered eraser - and not become abraded in the process. I don't need it to work with watercolour as I don't tend to use it - and tend to leave other people to do those reviews.........but I've had a little go with this one! ;)
  

So - what are the features of the Derwent Journal?

Overall it looks remarkably like a Moleskine with a few differences. The question is - how important are those differences to a dedicated Moleskine user like me?

Design: Anybody who has a Moleskine will recognise this straight away. Rounded edges on front and back covers - good because they then don't get damaged and bent back when tucked into any sort of space available. A nice big fat expanding pocket at the back for 'things' (so useful when it comes to tickets and mementoes!) plus they go one better and have a smaller one at the front as well. I missed the 'in case of loss' printed info bit on the first page. I'd have happily given up a page for this - as I tend to record what's in the sketchbook on that page - but I'd started my sketch before I realised!

Cover: The cover is designed as a tactile faux animal hide and it comes in two shades warm terracotta and rich earth. It's jolly nice to the touch but feels like it would be heard wearing. It also has one of those elasticated bands (like the Moleskine) which keeps it shut when not in use. I think the should be mandatory on all sketchbooks as they avoid paper being damaged inadvertently.

Paper: Derwent's website tells me that each journal contains 80 sheets of high quality, 200 gsm acid-free cartridge paper. For American readers cartridge paper is a high quality drawing paper - and there'll a post about its origins and other uses on my other blog Making A Mark later today. (see What is Cartridge Paper?)

The paper has a slight creamy colour which will be very familiar to those using Moleskines. It's very smooth but I have a slight feeling that it is not quite as 'bond' like as I like it and it's weight suggests it's lighter than the 250gsm paper used in a Moleskine - which I really like. I think the Moleskine might also be just a teeny weeny bit smoother.

Media - pencils:

The Ecology Park Pond - pencil study
pencil, 6.7" x 9.25"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This journal's paper takes pencil very well indeed. I was using a mechanical pencil with a slightly soft lead to get a good range of values in my sketch of the willows around the the bridge over what the park authority call a lake - and what I call a pond - in the local Ecology Park.

A quick tip for those out with only pen and pencil to hand. Write out colours on your sketches. Those light coloured reed in the centre have an annotation of "zinc yellow"!

On the next nice day I'll take a trip back to try this sketch again in coloured pencils!

Media - pen and ink: I tried a pen and ink sketch of the Regents Canal just north of the Old Ford Lock. There's a nice wall for parking oneself on while sketching the canal and the barges.

The Regents Canal looking towards the Approach Road Bridge entrance to Victoria Park
pen and sepia ink, 6.7" x 9.25"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

My feeling is that it's well suited to pen and ink work. The paper did not abrade with repeated hatching and the surface was smooth enough to enable me to work quickly

While processing my sketch in PS I discovered that the format of a double page spread gives you a perfect 5x7 aspect ratio! A double page spread actually measures 6.7" x 9.25" - but the ratio is the important bit if you use it for large thumbnail sketches before embarking on a larger drawing plein air or back in the studio.

Media - pen and ink and coloured pencils: my very first sketch was actually of the Arts Pavilion in the Arts Park in Mile End Park - which turned into a bit of a mess - I should remember not to do reversed out neon signs! However, the mix of pen and ink and coloured pencils worked just fine.

Similarly, laying down coloured pencils for the next test back home also suggested that this paper is very receptive to coloured pencils.

Media - watercolour: The type of paper suggests that it's propobably not suitable for 'proper' watercolour - like the Moleskine sketchbook. So I tested it for a modified form of watercolour.

Rather than proper watercolour paint and a proper brush, I used my watercolour pencils to create a swatch of colour and a waterbrush. A very light application of water over half of the swatch does not cause the paper to buckle. Adding water via the waterbrush created a pretty good intensity of colour if not too much was added to the pencil marks. Saturation could be lightened by brushing out the colour across the page without the paper buckling. See the swatch to see what I mean.

You can also see where I used a battery powered eraser to remove both pure watercolour pencil and WC pencil converted to a wash from the paper. The paper stands up well to the rapid abrasion from the eraser and allowed me to remove colour almost back to the pure natural colour of the paper - only a slight tinge remained. Unfortunately once water has been applied the removal is both less obvious and less successful.

Overall though it looks as if this journal is much better suited to dibble dabble using a water brush and/or dry brush watercolour rather than saturating paper and working wet in wet. Try the latter and no matter how heavy this paper is my guess is it will buckle or refuse to accept the watercolour. If you want to use watercolour you must get a sketchbook with proper watercolour paper.

Binding: The journal is stitched and consequently will lie flat - which is great. The real test always comes at the start or the end of a sketchbook when getting it to lie flat is most difficult (OK - I'll be frank "downright irritating" would be more accurate if it doesn't!) but this journal presented no problems on that front.

Overall it looks well made. However there are no perforations and this is not a sketchbook for people who like to remove pages. It's a sketchbook for people like me who like to keep their sketchbooks intact as sketchbooks!

If you want something to use for working drawings to extract and play around with this is not the journal for you

Size: It comes in a choice of two sizes which seem to be variously described depending on where you look on the Derwent website or catalogue. The Medium/Mini - the one I tried - is 120mm x 170mm (that's 4.72in x 6.69in). The Small/Pocket is 90mm x 140mm (3.54in x 5.51in). Frankly the latter is far to small for me - and I'd be far more likely to use a larger size - if it existed.

The Medium is smaller than the larger Moleskine - and in some ways that makes it a more attractive proposition as a 'small' sketchbook compared to the larger sketchbook Moleskine is just a little too large for the handbag scenario. Personally speaking I find the small size of the Derwent Dafai Journal just a tad too small for me - but as I indicated earlier that's always very much an issue of personal preference.

Price: I note that Artifolk are selling these journals online for £6.99 for the small size and £8.99 for the Medium Size. I'm guessing you may see them at various prices in the shops - depending where your local retail version of heaven is.

Overall - I think this is a good quality product which will suit people who like to keep proper journals of times in their life or their travels. However, it's too expensive for people who just need some paper to try out roughs and i's not appropriate for people who want to do serious and/or 'wet' watercolour and/or want to remove their work from the stitched journal.

I'll certainly continue to use this Derwent Safari Journal and will add it into my basic toolkit - and I'll also report back again when I've finished it - I have a sneeking suspicion it's going to be the perfect size for the pocket of my heavy duty cold weather anorak.

I think on the whole the Moleskine continues to have the slight edge for me when I'm carrying a backpack - mainly because of the paper which has proved to be very reliable and very suitable for the media I use. However I couldn't find a Moleskine I'd happily use this instead and I think people who like slightly smaller sketchbooks would find it a good size.

Early morning light in Cheshire

Sunrise from Jan's Study
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the tips I remember being given a very long time ago is "never neglect a chance to sketch in early morning or early evening light" as the light, colours and shapes can be a lot more interesting. So if I'm occupying a bed away from home I always look out the window very early to see what the view looks like and lots of sketches over the years have been done before breakfast!

I was staying at the home of my cousin and her husband in Cheshire earlier this week and found the clocks going back on Sunday meant I was getting up earlier than usual. So I took some time to sketch the views in very early morning light from rooms which look out from the front and rear of the house over gardens and fields. I even managed a sunrise!

Sketching a sunrise is a tricky business - the light changes really fast and I had to draw even faster than usual, plus use my memory of what colours had been there. The nature of the tonal range and contrasts and the speed with which these changed were a real challenge as well. As I think I've explained before, I usually get some colour down fast and try and indicate its area very loosely without trying to get a more 'finished' sketch. That way I can finish the sketch after the light effects have changed.

I'd like to have a go at working the sunrise one up. I've just had a peek at my camera card and I've got a couple of photos which provide me with good information about the cloud formation but of course the camera has then made everything else completely black - such is the way in which cameras cope with areas of dark values when faced with intense light! I guess I'll work something out....

The view from 'bedroom 5'
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This next one is a favourite view of my cousin's and I've been on a promise to try and produce a drawing of this for some time. The combination of the sunshine and colours of the early morning clouds juxtaposed with the autumn colours of the beech hedge and silver birch in the garden plus the other hedges and trees in the fields creates an attractive vista. Again, this is potentially one for working up but I think I maybe need to experiment with a different crop or format for this one.

Have you ever tried sketching a sunrise?

Useful art materials for sketching

Sunday morning in Mirepoix - without the people!
coloured pencil on Canson Mi Teintes
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is a summary of posts on my other blog "Making A Mark" that comment on and contain useful materials for sketching. I mainly use coloured pencils (artist quality and watercolour) and pen and ink.

Media

• A portable sketching kit - watercolour pencils and waterbrush
• Russ Stutler's observations on the waterbrush - all you need to know about waterbrushes
  
• Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour pencils - I've used these for over 15 years and they are recommended by me
  
• Royal Talens Van Gogh Coloured Pencils - these include a lot of blues and greens which are useful for the plein air sketcher
• How green is my coloured pencil collection? - colour swatches of all my choice of greens for sketching landscapes plus comments on brand
  
• Derwent drawing pencils - good for skin - but also good if you anticipate scenes with lots of neutral colours
• Colourfastness of coloured pencils - big improvements in lightfastness mean a need for a review
• The Rotring Art Pen - used by a number of sketchers

Sketchbooks, supports and other useful kit

• Two new sharpeners - including a battery powered sharpener for sketching outdoors which is excellent for heavy duty work all day long.
  
• Sketching bluebells - includes comments about the need for bulldog clips!
• Amazon and Moleskine Books - check out apparent bargains carefully when buying sketching sketchbooks online
• Reloading a Moleskine - Martha at Trumpetvine Travels advises on how to use the front and back boards with a paper of your own choice
  
• Abrasive supports for pastels and coloured pencils #2
• Which sketchbook? - reviews the sketchbooks I use
  

I will update this thread as and when new threads are produced so that it acts as a summary which can be bookmarked.

Please feel free to bookmark this thread in your browser or in a links section on your website.

[Updated: 11.10.07]

Note: The sketch is of one side of the square in the thirteenth century bastide town of Mirepoix - which lies half way between Carcassonne and Foix in south west France. The centre of town comprises an arcaded market square which is one of the most attractive in the whole of France.

The square is bordered by houses dating from between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, and a relatively harmonious modern halle on one side, but its highlight is the medieval Maison des Consuls (council house), whose arcaded rafters are carved with hundreds of unique portrayals of animals, monsters, and caricatures of medieval social groups and professions, as well as ethnic groups from across the world.
France-for-visitors.com

In the time available I had the option of getting the architecture done or adding in people and only getting half of it done - guess which won! This was sketched from a cafe table at one end of the square.

Links:

• Making A Mark Writing about: Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art lovers
  
• Ariege Pyrenees - Mirepoix
  
• Pyrenees Guide - Mirepoix
  

More sketching at Sissinghurst and a salutary tale

The Moat Walk, Sissinghurst
11" x 16", pencil and coloured pencil in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm transferring all previous posts about Sissinghurst to this blog. This particular post is about a sketching trip to Sissinghurst two years ago. It starts with a full-on whinge by me!

I have to tell you I had the most frustrating afternoon. First, dear partner decides to navigate to where we're going in the Weald of Kent via the county town. I am not impressed, my idea of holidays is not sitting in traffic trying to find the sign at junction after traffic light after junction etc etc. However I've only got myself to blame as I'm the geographer not him!

Then when we get to where we're going - a very beautiful garden called Sissinghurst (do take a look at the photos but they are about half as good as IRL) in Kent, I find that I'm unable to try out my new tripod as they cannot be used in the garden while it's open to the public (My birthday arrived six weeks early on Monday - after I carefully led dearly beloved into the camera shop!)

And then the batteries in my camera give up more or less straight away. But, I think, "I'm a clever clogs and brought a spare set and all we need to do is change them" and then I found out that they're flat too. At this point remarks which need a great deal of asterisks when written down are emanating from my lips.

When I get home I find that somehow or other the switch which says "charge only 2" batteries is on (rather than the 4 which my camera takes) hence the problem with both sets.

Anyway, since I had no opportunity whatsoever to take photos I did a sketch instead. For this one I had about an hour or so. The intention was that I could sketch while partner sat next to me doing something he likes doing - reading in the sunshine. Unfortunately, our seat wasn't in direct sun and he wasn't enamoured with the comfort of the seat.......so I had to work quite quickly.

I had a very nice little German girl watching me for almost the entire time I was doing it and had great comments from observers - the best was "It takes those with an eye..........great colours" and "Sehr schön"

My approach to proportion and perspective

This sketch was a bit of a challenge in terms of placement and perspective, although, to be honest the only perspective I was interested in was whether the trees forms had recession - despite being different in type, shape and colour!

My usual practice when sketching is not measure anything accurately since I consider these to be essentially colour roughs. I can do more careful measuring and perspective later but I won't be able to reproduce the colour which is changing in front of me as the sun swings round. So I usually devote most of my time to capturing light in terms of value and colour.

I basically "eyeball" a subject and measure very much as I would do if I was drawing a person - that is to say I find one thing to act as a measure and then mentally measure everything off against that in broad terms. Plus I pay attention to angles.

What I did with this one is work out where my eyeline was and I noted that the top of the 'box of box hedge' was dead level. I then worked out a horizon line and decide where that should be placed on the page - in this case it was the top of the distant hedge beyond the moat. I then very roughly worked out the angle of the lawn walk and decided I wasn't going to be fussed about whether or not it was dead accurate. I think I adjusted it slightly as I worked my way down the border lightly drawing in the outlines of shapes and forms. I then roughed in the perspective on the old walls either side of the steps down to the lawn. Again I was more interested in the colours of very old brick and the impact of shadows then whether the perspective was correct.

Finally if anybody was ever wondering what a box hedge looks like wonder no longer - see big square shape on the left of the sketch - how big would like your box........?


Note: I now have a battery charger at home and in the car and take the batteries out of my camera and recharge on the drive home!

Sketching plein air with coloured pencils

The Order Beds
10" x 14" on Arches Hot Press
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is a sketch which I started a couple of weeks ago at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew - or Kew Gardens as they popularly known and finished the next day. It's a view of the Order Beds (in the north eastern section of the garden or no 28 on the map) from the centre of that bit of the garden - looking towards the Temple of Aeolus which sits on top of the artifical mound known as Cumberland Mount.

The Order Beds were originally introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker as a living library of flowering plants for students of botany and horticulture - the plants being systematically arranged so that they could be easily located for study.This process, and the science of understanding the relationship between plants, is known as taxonomy and is the basis of all research carried out at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A pergola covered with climbing roses covers the central path of the area, and the surrounding walls provide shelter for many plants
Kew website

My approach to sketching plein air with coloured pencils

As I'm trying to get a lot of sketches done during my Gardens in Art month on "Making A Mark", I thought that I'd say a bit about what I do when I sketch plein air using coloured pencils.

Get comfortable and used to the place

• If you're new to sketching you can sometimes find it easier and more comfortable if you are with someone else. However you do need a willing partner for your expedition, rather than somebody who is going to find your sketching a tiresome and time-consuming activity! If your partner respects your dedication to sketching and you want to spend time with him or her, then you'll need to make it easy for them to accompany you on trips - so they don't get bored either!
• First off, when we go out with the intention of me sketching, the deal is that we always have to find a bench where "he who must not be bored while I sketch" can sit in the sun. He's not keen on shade! Then we make sure he has enough reading material. On Saturday he was armed with the Financial Times, the Economist, a professional journal and a book - he's used to my sketching trips.
• I generally start with a good walk around the place on my own. Being on your own makes it a lot easier to just stand and stare! It's also amazing how just 'being there' and letting your eyes do some work before you sit down to sketch helps to get your eyes attuned to colours particular to the place. In this case the order beds were past the early summer excesses in terms of flowers and were now either empty or had just the leaves.

Use my camera selectively as a tool and for reference purposes

• I use my camera to:
• take general photographs of the place.
• try out different crops of the scene I'm thinking of sketching - using the viewfinder. It's great when the shape is the same as the camera's and not so useful if a different shape would suit better. If you think you'd like to crop down take a shot which is larger than the view you'd like to do.
• take photos at the beginning and the end and as the light changed while I was sketching and then again at the end. If you're not used to sketching pleir air you'll be amazed at how fast the light and shadows change - particularly at either end of the day.
• Very often when I do a worked up version of a sketch, I may change things. With this one the issue is whether to have a long thin version looking down the long strip of grass or whether to include all the nuances of the foliage in the landscape view. Having photos helps with the structure of compositions even if they are less than perfect at recording both colour and values.

Develop a "thumbnail sketch"

• For this view I first developed a thumbnail sketch for the design and value pattern. Except my idea of thumbnail is 8" x11"!!! I'm just more comfortable doing them big. Plus once I've got the mono version done and I'm happy with it I quite often put in key colours to remind me of what and where they are in case they disappear. I am after all sketching outside - and the sun moves as do the clouds.

"Thumbnail" sketch for The Order Beds
(8" x 11" in daler Rowney Sketchbook)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• I then usually lay my thumbnail sketch in my sketchbook on the ground at my feet so I can glance at it easily while sketching. This is the other good reason for doing them big because they look a lot more thumbnail sized when lying on the ground!

Consider and select colours

• Coloured pencils are really great for being able to make colour studies and provide much more accurate information than the colour you get from photos. I find that photographs taken on sunny days (as this one was) often distort both values and colour quite badly.
• When looking at and trying to work out coloursI find it helpful to:
• mentally name the colours as I look at them - giving them a name helps to make that stick in my head.
• select all the colours I expect to use and put the pencils in a separate box. Bear in mind that what I'm looking for is the colour in the colour. So it's less about looking for greens and more about looking for the red/blue/yellow in the green.
• The critical issue with this particular scene was to notice all the different sorts of greens which existed - from the intense apple green of the nasturtiums (bottom left) top the intense acid yellow of the grass where the sunlight was hitting it in the centre to the yellow ochre green gold of some of the trees in the middle background to the sea greens of some of the plantings (the overgrown sweet peas right of centre) and the black cherry/pine green of some of the trees in the background.
• I very often start with the 'other than green' colours I can see in the greens and build up from there. With coloured pencils you can lay down a colour and then glaze over the top. Optical mixing makes for much more interesting colours which I think adds depth to sketches. If you look through my sketchbooks you'll see a lot of examples.

Develop the sketch

• Using a mechanical pencil I sketched in the main structure quickly. I then start to roughly dab colour around the piece - generally starting with the darks at the junction with the lights.
• I use a hatching movement for most of it, changing the angles to suit the form. The hatching is loose so that when I hatch on top with a different colour you can see through it. My guess is most people would have a fit if they could see how imprecise I am and how much I simply scribble. It always feels a bit like sculpting where I get closer and closer to finding the real form and 'look' of a piece.
• I'm planning to try and organise it so that "must not be bored" takes a video of me while working at some point in the future. Either that or I remember where the instructions are for the remote control for my camera!

Finishing

• It's rare to get everything done while I'm out. However sketching a lot outside means that I've developed a very good visual memory of a place which usually lasts as a good quality image for about 24 hours. I then use the next 24 hours to both recall what more needs developing and also to look at the piece far more critically from an aesthetic viewpoint.
• Being away from the place means that I can now adjust for what 'feels right' as opposed to 'what actually is'. You can make a choice about sketching for accuracy or sketching for aesthetics - there is no requirement to sketch everything exactly as seen. You are an artist and artists are allowed to change things!
• On return home I did a few more things:
• I finished hatching the areas where I'd just put down enough to know the colour. Essentially this is very often a "more of the same" exercise. It almost always applies to the sky area once I've worked out any cloud edges. It often applies to big and somewhat similar masses - I've got the initial colour down and I have photos to check shapes - essentially it's very often "more of the same"
• I then worked on the relative values. This is very often something which I don't get quite right on site - usually for no other reason than that white paper in sunlight causes problems with evaulation. I find getting the sketch back indoors means I get a better sense of the extent to which I've hit the right values. My method involves always mentally telling myself where all the darkest patches are as I'm drawing and then my memory prompts a checklist when I get home. In this instance the trees at the back were very dark in patches and I needed to develop that further - which I did using complementary colours so the areas would vibrate rather than look 'dead' holes.
• Using my battery powered eraser, I then lifted out some birdie holes and lightened some areas where light coloured flowers exist and places where and grasses and tendrils had got backlighting. I then put back some of the clean light colours - the pale pinks and the lemon yellows.

While at Kew I had great fun inspecting all the vegetables in the beds developed by the horticulture students and taking photographs - only to discover when I got home that I'd inadvertently adjusted something on my camera and the photos were a lot smaller than intended. C'est la vie! But I've decided I'm definitely going to develop a series about vegetables.

Gardens in Art
In August I've been doing a project on Gardens in Art on my main blog Making A Mark in order to develop my art and artwork involving gardens. If you enjoy sketching gardens and also would like to look at different ways of looking at gardens, I've included links to the various posts below.

Notes

1. Most of this post was first published as Gardens in Art - The Order Beds at Kew Gardens in Making A Mark. This version includes some additional text.
2. All text copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Links:

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Map of Kew Gardens with links to all the different parts of the garden
• The Order Beds, Kew
• My website: Travels with a Sketchbook
• Making A Mark - Gardens in Art Project (August 2007
• Gardens in Art - Scope and Resources
• Gardens in Art: A new squidoo lens
• A new Wet Canvas Forum for Floral/Botanical Art (includes reference to sketching at Sissinghurst)
• Gardens in Art: 2 bookshops and 1001 gardens
• Gardens in Art: In the gardens of Impressionism
• Gardens in Art - Resources for Artists (squidoo lens with lots of links to more information)
• Gardens in Art: The Order Beds at Kew Gardens
• Gardens in Art - Pastel paintings of gardens in Spain
• Gardens in Art - the concept and art of the garden
• Gardens in Art - Drawings and Paintings by Van Gogh
• Gardens in Art - Are you a veggie?